College fairs?

[Hilltopmom]

Just found out about a college fair in our town tonight. Held at the local state school, flyer says "booths from 100 different colleges".

 

Worth attending? Ds is currently just looking at our state schools (tight finances) & 2 private schools he knows about that are close driving wise.

I think he could look for a few more private schools to check out. (& hope for financial aid)

 

Anyone have experience with a " college fair"?

Thanks

[HomeAgain]

We went to one last night.  It was certainly worth attending for us.  My ds had already picked out a school, but after talking to reps he chose to look at a few more (including a very inexpensive state school that has the program he wants!  Whoohoo!)  *ahem*  It also gave him the chance to see what shady schools were like - the ones who refused to talk about numbers, statistics, anything except how much you could make after graduation had him backing slowly away.  
Upstairs they also had seminars on financial aid and scholarships, but we had already met with the person giving the talks in a more private, one on one setting, so those we skipped, but the rest of the fair was a good experience for him.

[G5052]

They hold them at the community college where I used to work, and I went several years to see what their expectations were for homeschoolers. Sometimes you get more detail face-to-face than from their websites.

 

I thought it was useful for general information, but of course actual visits are important as well. On some of the college visits there were so many people that it was tough to get questions answered. The college fairs were actually better on details.

[KarenNC]

We've been to several. It gave a way to give a first look at some of the schools, ask questions about any extra homeschool requirements and campus atmosphere, meet the admissions rep for your area (likely the one who will be reading your application and presenting your case for admissions in committee), and to be noted as showing interest in the school, which is a factor in admissions for some schools. For schools where it is possible, we're doing a layered approach---check out the website for the school, attend college fair(s) and meet the reps, if in the area drive through the campus, go to an open house, go for a more focused visit and talk to the department, then, for the final ones on the list, plan on an overnight visit in senior year if possible. So far, the schools in which she is interested have been within four hours, so multiple visits over sophomore to senior year are feasible. 

 

You can also keep an eye out to see if there are specialized fairs or events in your area. The schools in the Colleges That Change Lives book and group have their own fair, and I just found out that the state theatre conference has a theatre-focused college discovery day that my daughter plans to attend, as that is her current interest. Particular schools may also have individual outreach events in your area, which may be listed on the college website or you can email the rep for your area and ask. My daughter did a local interview when the rep for an out of state school was coming through.

 

Make sure that the fair is actually open to students who don't attend that school/school system, as sometimes they aren't, and have your student make a list prioritizing which schools to talk with or check out, along with some questions to ask. Some of the popular ones will have long lines or big crowds, so he may want to move on to the next school on the list and try to go back later in the evening.

 

 

[dirty ethel rackham]

Those fairs with a huge number of colleges represented can be hit or miss.  If you have an idea what colleges you want to talk to before you walk in and you seek those out, it can give you a chance to ask questions.  But, if you go in unprepared, it can be a "deer in the headlights" kind of experience.  Those face-to-face chats tend not to be very in-depth.  Often, the reps there really don't know policy all that well.  We were given incorrect information about homeschool policy at several tables. 

 

I do like the smaller, more targeted ones like Colleges That Change Lives.  Our local high school had "Big Ten" night where all the schools in the Big Ten were represented. 

 

I personally did not find them helpful for me... I found more info on their websites.  However, I did find these useful for my kids, mostly to get them accustomed to talking to reps, learning how to ask questions, opening their eyes to what is out there, and signing up to get tons of "you are special" mail from these schools :laugh: . 

 

I recommend doing your child doing some prep work ahead of time ... looking over the list of schools represented and taking a peek at their websites, if possible, getting an idea of what questions to ask.  At some of the bigger ones, having a page of address labels with the student information can save time when filling out interest cards. 

 

Going in with specific ideas about what you want to ask can be useful. 

[FaithManor]

I have been to three. In all fairness though, these were ones that had schools attending that were on one of my kids' radar, and we made an appointment with the college for an admission's interview while they were there. This was due to the fact that in each case, these colleges were a very expensive, long distance to travel. Going to a fair in-state made it possible to at least get some basic information, and see how the interview went. In one case, ds's interview was impressive enough to him that it seemed worthwhile to visit the school despite the expense. In the other two cases, he was turned off by answers to some of his questions. To be honest, it is a marketing scheme, a "sell the school" fair. That's not wrong by any stretch. They have a job to do. But, you don't learn anything about the school usually that puts it into the visit/don't visit category so you still need to visit unless you can arrange the interview. However, that said, if there are any schools that are good, long distance from you that might end up on your student's list, then if it is convenient and just maybe you can arrange for a private session with an admission's rep, it would be worth attending.

 

Th be honest, websites, email chat, etc. have just as much information as you are likely to get at a college fair without an interview where your student can have a designated time to ask a lot of questions without interruption. That said, I firmly prefer the college visit with a faculty interview pre-arranged.

 

 

[MysteryJen]

We took (dragged) ds1 to the Colleges That Change Lives fair. He was reluctant to say the least, but we required him to pose two questions to at least five reps. It was good practice for him and he actually added the school he is attending now to his list after the fair.

It was well worth our time for a slightly reluctant, undecided liberal arts boy. We will probably take ds2 to one as well.

[JanetC]

College fairs can be a zoo. Go through the list and pre-research the booths you want to visit, based on various criteria like major, financial aid, etc. Expect that the tables for the most popular schools (e.g. the state flagship, the highest prestige schools at the fair, etc) will be very crowded and may not have much time to talk to you.

 

I split up with my DD - she went and asked colleges on her list about their programs, etc. I took my homeschool transcripts and course descriptions papers to random tables where the reps weren't busy and asked for suggestions about how to improve them.

[Tess in the Burbs]

we just went to a small college fair last week.  I am glad we went.  It is WAY early for mine to be looking, but at the same time, it was helpful for them to see different majors, consider how far away they want to be, etc.  One school offered a summer classics class in ITALY for high school Jr's and up.  My girl was very interested ;-)  

 

We plan to keep going to these, mostly to get their names on mailing lists and keep ruling out places so when we need to really put in the time we have narrowed it down already in some areas. 

[KarenNC]

we just went to a small college fair last week.  I am glad we went.  It is WAY early for mine to be looking, but at the same time, it was helpful for them to see different majors, consider how far away they want to be, etc.  One school offered a summer classics class in ITALY for high school Jr's and up.  My girl was very interested ;-)  

 

We plan to keep going to these, mostly to get their names on mailing lists and keep ruling out places so when we need to really put in the time we have narrowed it down already in some areas. 

 

I don't think it's too early at all (particularly since that's when we started ;) ).  I knew that we would not be able to visit all the potential schools in her junior year due to other commitments, so we started the process early. It was really helpful for my daughter to get past the "deer in the headlights" feeling of being overwhelmed at a fair in 9th grade. I required her to go up and actually talk to a minimum of three schools at that first fair, and gather information from at least two more. Things were much easier once she knew what to expect.

 

We did a spiral, go deeper each year approach (luckily all the ones she is considering are within 4 hours of home, so multiple visits are possible):

9th---go to a couple of college fairs (one was small, one really large), and as we were out and about, drive through any college campus we passed, so she would begin to see the variety of options. That actually knocked a couple off the list and added at least one that is at the top now.

 

10th--repeat with college fairs, schedule open house attendance at any possible schools within a reasonable distance, especially those high on the list, look to see if any schools on her list of possibles have outreach events close by. My initial goal was just to pick schools that were relatively close by that were representative of different types of schools (large, small, medium, urban, suburban, rural, etc), but she ended up really liking one that we visited that I had not seriously considered.

 

11th (current)--will probably only hit the larger general fair and a focused theatre fair, attend more open houses and individual tours as time permits, goal is to have a list of 6-10 schools by the end of the year where she can see herself being happy, which have a range of majors that might interest her, and where her stats make her competitive for their top merit aid (and even not the top aid would make it feasible financially). Her top desired major changed at the end of last year from English to tech theatre, so we are having to re-visit some of the ones we hit last year with an eye to checking out their theatre programs.

 

12th--apply to at least 5-6 schools. Try to schedule overnight visits or at least attending a class at the top contenders, if that hasn't already happened.

[mom2samlibby]

We've gone to two.  One last year as a junior and one this year (senior year).  I'd say it was beneficial.  We found out that several school have added programs that we didn't know about.  The school had been ruled out previously.  We found out that we need to start applying now to the schools.  And we got some free pens.  :)